Here are some links to people who have interest in bees that may be able to help you find a solution in your area: State Apiary Inspectors (the CA inspector's office may have info about beekeepers in your area) - http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/pubs/beekeep.pdf Faculty at UC at Riverside Entomology Dept - http://www.entomology.ucr.edu/ Meetup - http://beekeeping.meetup.com/cities/us/ca/los_angeles/ Well, hope that helps some. Cheers.

Hi friends, I'm struggling with a similar problem and could really use some advice. I apologize for how long this is, but it's kind of a specific circumstance. My fiancée and I just moved into a little apartment with a lovely little deck that we'd love to be able to use and have friends over on. Unfortunately, the frame of the back door that leads out onto the porch is also the entry point for what appears to be a pretty large nest of honeybees. We have no way of knowing how old this nest is because we moved here from out of state (I've just started grad school in the area) and only discovered the bees when we were moving in (mid-august). The bees certainly aren't aggressive, but I have a crippling fear of all things-with-stingers because of a bad experience when I was very young (I've been stung since then in my life; I know it's not terrible, and that as long as we leave them alone it's highly unlikely, but when is fear ever rational or easily controlled?). I'm beyond disappointed we can't use our porch for this reason��"even opening the back door before they've gone to sleep causes a lot of stress and anxiety��" because it's one of the reasons we chose this place, but much MORE IMPORTANTLY than that, as the weather is starting too cool down here, they are finding their way into the warmth of our living space now and then. THAT I am completely unwilling to deal with in any capacity. Bees are completely unwelcome inside my house. We simply CANNOT tear apart our walls from either side because we do not own this building (nor are we financially-eqipped or have the time to do so), and while our leasing-management was great about sending an exterminator (twice) when we complained, all he did was spray around with some general pesticide that of course didn't even get into hive or probably kill more than a couple of bees if any. From the research I've done, no exterminator is equipped to handle this anyway. We're only going to be here for a few years while I complete my degree, so at this point, I'm not looking for ways to get rid of or move the bees, but ways to minimize our interactions with them so we can just deal with them as a temporary problem and I can function a bit better, with less anxiety issues (since our leasing-office seems disinterested in actually taking care of them, they can deal with every tenent they ever have complaining about them, I guess). We can't locate how the bees get inside the house so we haven't been able to seal it, but if there's some sort of spray or something we can use generally on our walls and in the area to discourage them from coming this direction, that'd be great. Recommendations, traps, or other ways to lure them away from the door/minimize their presence on our porch would also be great, but at this point, the only thing I NEED accomplished is to keep them from coming inside. I am unopposed to any methods that involve killing them. I truly wish I didn't have to, but there's simply no way we can get them moved. When they're outside, that's their business, but bees that come inside my house and violate my safe-space feeling have forfeited all empathy I have for them.

Hi Jean, No, we have typical honeybees in the ground here. Pretty hard to confuse them with yellowjackets or bumbles. The rumor around here (not sure how true it is, or not) is that killer bees (AHB, africanized honey bees) are more likely to nest underground than standard honey bees. This is the fourth hive we've found underground in the past three years. The first two we tried (semi-successfully) to kill with chemicals, and the third we managed to get up into a hive, only to have it die a few weeks later (apparenntly we didn't get the queen). I wasn't involved in the killing efforts, so I'm not exactly sure what was used, but I heard that they just poured soap water down onto the hive. Probably Sevin would work better, but that would very likely injure the two regular hives that we've got just a few feet away, so I want to avoid that option at pretty much any cost. The question is, can we capture these bees and put them into a hive, or do bees dig so far underground that we couldn't realistically get them out and into a hive. If so, and if we simply have to kill them (not my favorite option) what's the best way to kill honeybees that are hunkered down underground??? Thisbud

Solitary Bees and wasps love to inhabit similar areas so this could be a fight for the habitat, another queen could have tried to make a nest there, or the queen could have dug the nest she made up. These factors all can be relevant but I would just try to watch the activity and it should fix itself. If another species is fighting for the area like wasps try removing the wasps. (caution be careful) GOOD LUCK!